The Truth about Metabolism Boosters

The Truth
about Metabolism Boosters

If you are
on the market for a weight loss supplement, you are going to be inundated with
products claiming to “boost your metabolism instantly!” The way that these weight loss supplements
phrase it, you would think that your metabolism is the speed gauge on a car; to
get a faster metabolism, you just need to press the accelerator. The reality is that metabolism is much more
complex than a speed gauge and it takes more than a weight loss pill to boost
your metabolism.

Metabolism
101

Metabolism
is not how fast you burn calories or food.
Rather, metabolism is how efficiently your body uses energy. Metabolic
rate is regulated by numerous factors including natural chemicals, your
activity level, and your body mass. Your
overall health is very important for maintaining metabolic rate. If your body becomes deprived of essential
nutrients or you become dehydrated, your metabolic rate will suffer.

What
Metabolism Boosters Do

Most
metabolism boosters are some type of stimulant, like caffeine from green tea or
other “natural” weight loss supplements.
A new genre of non-stimulant metabolism boosters is becoming popular.
They are called thermogenic supplements (thermogenic supplements: the hottest
new weight loss pills) and work by increasing your body temperature so your
body has to use more energy for heat. When you increase your metabolism, you
will burn more calories for energy.
Thus, you not only will lose weight but also have more energy.
Unfortunately, these benefits usually don’t last into the long term and could
actually hinder your weight loss goals for the future.

Stimulant
weight loss supplements (stimulant weight loss supplements: are they really
going to shed fat from your body?) are particularly bad for the metabolism in
the long run. When you take a stimulant
metabolism booster, your body eventually gets used to the effects of the
supplement and develops a dependency. A
dependency is a physical condition in which your body needs a substance to
function normally.

Without the stimulant to keep your metabolism at its new
normal, your metabolic rate will decline.
Another withdrawal effect of stimulants is that they cause increased
appetite. The combination of a slowed
metabolism and increased appetite means that weight gain is almost inevitable
when you stop taking a stimulant supplement for weight loss. Non-stimulant thermogenic supplements do not
have these potential side effects.
However, their effectiveness is debatable when it comes to significantly
increasing metabolism.

When taken
as directed along with a healthy diet and exercise plan, metabolism boosters
can be effective tools in supporting weight loss. The key to remember though is
that a metabolism booster is not a weight loss solution; it should only
supplement your existing weight-loss plan.

Exercise,
Nutrition and Hydration are Key

To really
increase your metabolic rate, the best solution is to first focus on nutrition
and hydration. Simply put, your body
functions better when it has all the nutrients and water it needs to be
healthy. Exercise is another great way
to increase your metabolic rate. To get
the best weight loss benefits from exercise, you should eat something light and
then perform your workout. When you
exercise on an empty stomach, your body may break down muscle for fuel instead
of fat. When you give your metabolism a
bit of fuel to run on, it will break down fat reserves instead of muscle once
the fuel has run out.

Increased
Muscle Mass = Increased Metabolism

If you want
to increase your metabolism over the long run, you may be better off opting for
a protein supplement instead of a declared metabolism booster. While protein supplements won’t directly help
you lose weight, they do support a long-term increase in metabolic rate. The reason for this is because metabolism is
directly linked to body mass.

The more
mass your body has, the more energy it will expend daily. So, if you have a mass of 180 pounds, your
metabolism will go faster than when it has 160 pounds. When you lose weight, your body will not need
as much energy to sustain itself so your metabolic rate will decline. This is the reason why so many people lose
weight easily when they start a weight-loss plan and then have so much trouble
getting off those last few pounds.

Instead of
just focusing on shedding weight, you should be focusing on decreasing fat
while increasing lean muscle. On
average, a pound of fat will burn about 2-3 calories per day whereas a pound of
muscle will burn about 10 calories. By
taking a protein supplement and also going exercises for developing muscle (not
just fat burning exercises), you can help keep your metabolic rate high over
the long run in a way that metabolism boosters cannot.